Moscow willing to study U.S. proposals on nuke cuts, has not yet received them – Russian Foreign Ministry

(Interfax – February 14, 2013)

Russia has not yet received proposals from the United States regarding further mutual reductions of nuclear arsenals, but it is willing to examine them once it receives them, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

“We have not yet received specific proposals on further reductions of our strategic nuclear arsenals. If such proposals come, we will certainly study them carefully,” Lukashevich said in a commentary posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.

Russia’s position on the issue is well-known, he said.

“At the present stage, our priority is full-format implementation of the Russian-U.S. New START Treaty. After the treaty’s implementation, we would be prepared to discuss possible further steps in the nuclear disarmament area,” he said.

“At the same time, we will take into account all factors affecting strategic stability, including plans to deploy the U.S. global missile defense system, the absence of progress in the ratification of the CTBT [the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty] in the U.S. and other countries from the so-called list of 44, unwillingness to give up the chance to deploy weapons in space, the presence of quantitative and qualitative misbalances in conventional weapons in Europe, and others,” Lukashevich said.